SC Edtech was last week, and I’m still trying to process all my thoughts. Eventually those thoughts will make their way here, but at the request of librarian friend Kristine Anderson, I’m going to tell about Discovery Education Network. I can’t really do that without first talking about SCETV and StreamlineSC. So this is going to be a two parter. Part one will focus on our access to Discovery Education streaming videos. Then part two will talk about the Discovery Education Network and being a STAR Discovery Education Network member.

Thank you SC Legislators!

In South Carolina, SC educators are the recipient of generous funding (and support!!) for Discovery Education resources. Known to most of you outside our state as Discovery Streaming, with our SCDOE partnership with SCETV, our portal is known as StreamlineSC. Here is an explanation directly from their “about” page:

ETV, partnering with the SC State Department of Education and the K-12 Technology Initiative, created StreamlineSC to improve and manage learning resources in South Carolina schools. ETV’s StreamlineSC a standards-based video-on-demand service utilizing Discovery Streaming offers classroom teachers much!

Now available to every school in South Carolina—free.

The content includes over 1500 educational programs created by the State Department of Education (ITV) and ETV, and 4000 titles from Discovery Education streaming.

Videos are correlated to South Carolina’s state K-12 curriculum standards;

In addition to video, schools have access to a high-resolution image library which has over20,000 pictures, an interactive quiz builder, pre-produced blackline masters, tests, interactive world atlas, and teachers’ guides.

Annually our legislators fund this resource for us. (NOTE to SC readers–MAKE SURE you thank your legislators for ensuring our access to this valuable resource each year!!) If it were not funded, there are many schools in our state who would not have access, as it is really expensive. I know many school librarians whose annual budget wouldn’t cover the cost of this resource. And many school administrators would also struggle to fund it annually. No, we do not get the full package, but what we get is truly resourceful.

Why call it StreamlineSC?

I tweeted that we had been asked in one of the SC Edtech sessions to point our visitors to StreamlineSC.orgas the link from our school sites rather than to Discovery Streaming. When asked why, we were told it’s sheerly political. When one visits Discovery Streaming directly, our logins and passwords do indeed work, but we miss a lot of material that our SCETV friends make available for us. We also miss seeing the SCETV logo, and if folks don’t know this, SCETV is a valuable support system to all SC Educators. By NOT using the StreamlineSC.org portal, visitors tend to forget the whole reason we have access to this resource is because of the partnership between SCETV, the K-12 Technology Initiative, and our SC DOE. Seeing both the StreamlineSC logo and the SCETV logo helps remind us that these organizations are making a commitment to SC Educators through resources that are used in our schools everyday.

Even though this year it didn’t happen (SCETV was SAFE!!) annually as legislators work on the budget to fund public education in our state, they consider cutting this resource. Educators and SCETV supporters have to rally to remind those legislators how valuable the resource is in classrooms across the state. Each year I hear of cuts (jobs and resources) and I have to make sure I contact my legislators and remind them of our need to KEEP this one (and especially keep the staff as SCETV.) I am very thankful to have access to the digital and human resources available from SCETV.

It’s just that important!
So long story short, seeing these two logos just reminds me I can utilize these resources because our legislators know we value them. It doesn’t happen automatically. We have to educate congress on what resources bring value to our classrooms. At the StreamlineSC site, educators have PLENTY to keep them informed of just what SCETV and our SCDOE are doing to make our jobs easier or to keep us informed. Just look at a few of the resources found on that home page. Visiting Discovery Streaming directly instead of using this portal causes SC educators to miss information pulled together just for them.